Hanging Ten In Cairo

La Luz last night at Cairo were all sunny sublime on a rainy night in Seattle. Somehow four girls playing surf rock in a sweaty back room on Capital Hill can make you forget about gray days that contain only eight hours of highly filtered light. Relatively new, the band started in sunnier times last summer, they played with seasoned chops sounding like they just came off tour with Dick Dale. Except unlike Dale they can sing too. Shana Cleveland (formerly of the Curious Mystery) first grabs your attention with both her singing and twangy guitar playing, but drummer Marian Li-Pino (also from the CM) is this band’s secret weapon. Playing the entire set with brushes she seemed to anchor them with her easy style, even though, as she let it be known, she had to pee really badly.

La Luz have a self-released EP called Damp Face out now on cassette and download to get us through the next few months. Let’s hope some enterprising record label sees fit to release some more of their surfy doo-wop in the very near future. In the meantime, if you live in Seattle you can catch them at Hollow Earth Radio on December 8.